On a Med cruise now with kids on HAL

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I can tell you a more upsetting HAL story... When my sister was 11 she had become friends with a bartender in one of the empty lounges. I'm sure my Mother was totally unaware of this and had she known wouldn't have thought that a crew member would be interested in an 11 year old girl. She would have thought it innocent.

 

Years later- my sister told me that she had french kissed the bartender!!!!! I told her that was nothing to brag about and how innappropriate that was. My sister had two older sisters onboard (me age 15 and my old sister 19) and perhaps she wanted to feel older like her sisters. Ugh... I was and am so grossed out that this crew member would do this with an 11 year old- who looked like an 11 year old. She was tiny and undeveloped.

 

Oh- I should mention that on that same cruise (Volendam 1980) my mother was getting friendly with the singer in the band. After each show- he'd come over and talk with my Mom (he was 25 and she was 43). I thought he was interested in my MOm because she was very attractive and newly single. Good for her I thought. One night I was talking with him too and he said he would show me where the crew lived. Well-I thought this was really cool- getting a behind the scenes tour. Keep in mind that I viewed him as an adult (not a love interest). So when I got back to his room, he immediately made his move on me!!!! Yikes. I got the hell out of there but didn't tell my Mother. I guess I thought I had inadvertently led him on. Looking back- I was 15 and he was 25- gross. Meanwhile, I did have a wild crush on a 21 year old officer from Holland but he was normal and didn't do anything to me. Sounds like a pretty wild cruise now!!!

 

So when I tell people that I think parents need to supervise their kids on cruises- I have my reasons.

[crusinmama06]

Boulders - welcome back! I am looking forward to the rest of the review. And yes, any crew member that sees sleeping passengers of ANY age should immediately back right out.

 

Rebecca - and stories like those are the reason that my girls are never unsupervised ;)

[boulders]

Rebecca, I'm very sorry to hear about your family's experience.

 

I have submitted my review. It should appear on the Nieuw Amsterdam page in a few days. As usual, there was much more to the cruise than I could fit in the review. If anyone has any questions about HAL or the Med, please ask.

[boulders]

Here's the link to my review.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Thanks for sharing your review. We did a 12 night cruise on Zuiderdam in 2008 and it was wonderful from start to finish. Our Maasdam cruise to Canada had an older clientele and a different vibe.

 

I think that when you sail in the summer in Europe- you get a nice mix of passengers and extended families. Older cruisers tend to avoid these cruises because of the heat.

[HALrunner]

Wow! What an adventure!

Our family loves HAL, but I can not imagine a HAL ship with 200 kids! On our upcoming TA, in addition to my two kiddos there are only two others on the ship.

We were on the NA in January and also had a cabana. I know most of the HAL board hates the cabanas, but I would book another in a heartbeat!

Thanks to your ATM story, I will be sure to bring two ATM cards for our trip to Italy next month. Did I understand you correctly, there is not an English option on the ATM? If not, do you recall any of the "must know" phrases in Italian?!?

[boulders]

In the larger cities, there is an English option on the ATMs. The first screen usually had "international" as one of its options. This got you to the English screen. However, we were in Burano and if there was an English option, we couldn't see it on the screen. I had much better luck with ATMs in Rome, Naples, Athens and Mykonos.

[Maryandi]

Boulders, Thank You so much for your day by day account of your trip and all of the problems. So glad you had a happy ending and your kids sound wonderful.

 

Creepy about the staff, too.

 

If ever there was a story for bringing Euros from home and for always taking more than you may need from the machines - you have told us all that - things do happen !!

 

Thanks and we're glad your booked on another cruise.

 

MaryA